With voting to the 288-member Assembly ending on Monday, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Baldev Singh said the voter turnout in the State was 60.46%, lower than the 63.08 % recorded in 2014.
Mumbai too registered a fall in voting percentage with only 49.9% turning up to exercise their franchise. In 2014 , the 36 Assembly constituencies Mumbai had registered polling of 51.21 %, up from 45.7% in 2009.
Karvir constituency in Kolhapur district recorded the highest turnout of 83.2%, while Colaba in Mumbai saw the lowest at 40.2%. The constituencies with the top five highest turnouts are all from Kolhapur district, while the bottom five are from urban seats in Mumbai, Thane and Pune.
Kolhapur district had the highest turnout at 73.62%, followed by Hingoli and Gadchiroli with polling percentages of 68.67% and 68.59% respectively. Mumbai city and Mumbai suburban districts registered the lowest voter turnout with 48.63% and 51.17% respectively.
Mr. Singh said the polling process witnessed no instances of violence and there were no complaints of names missing from electoral rolls. “Even though the polling percentage today looks less than that in 2014, we are still getting information from our officers across the State and it is likely to increase,” he said.
When asked about the demand made by the Nationalist Congress Party to block internet at the counting centres and areas where EVMs are stored, Mr. Singh said, “There is no connection of EVMs and internet. Therefore there is no need to install jammers.”
Election officials put the low turnout in Mumbai down to an extended weekend. With 1.68 lakh new voters on the rolls since the Lok Sabha polls, the city was expected to do better. Colaba recorded 40.2% as opposed to 46.2% in the 2014 elections, and Versova polled 42.66% as opposed to 41.59% in 2014. The two figured among the five lowest performing constituencies across the State.
Among some better performing areas were Bhandup West, with a turnout of 56.93%, Anushakti Nagar (55.3), Dindoshi (54.12) and Dahisar (53.17).
